Dr. Ginger Bratzel discusses how to protect your back and how to protect your dental practice.

Today, we are going to temporarily put marketing and getting new patient strategies on hold and spend time on something just as important, but often forgotten about until it is too late.

We are talking about protecting your practice and your back.

Back pain can affect anyone anytime especially those of us who are in the dental practice.

It happened to me and it ended my daily practicing career.

I’ve been private practice for over 18 years. During that same time, I also had my dental marketing business. Several years ago I had this terrible experience with my back, and it became very painful for me to continue so I decided to dedicate all my time to dental marketing exclusively.

It became too difficult for me to continue to do what I love while dealing with pain from arthritis and spinal stenosis. But I still get to serve patients through my work with dentists around the globe, like you, in helping you serve more patients.

So what are the things to do to protect your back?

1. Be Proactive

Don’t take your back for granted . We were taught in the dental school how to take care of our back but sometimes we don’t practice what we were taught. We pick up bad habits along the way and our backs pay the price.

2.Physical Therapy Team and Get Into a Regimen

If you are experiencing back pain already, be sure to have a physical therapy team that will take care of your needs. It is important to do training, stretching, exercises or yoga. This is something I have to do it every day to maintain mobility and reduce my pain.

3.Build Your Core

If you have a strong gut, you have a strong back. So it is very important to do core training. Make time to strengthen your abdomen to build strength and endurance. Make it one of your priorities.

4.Stay Active

It is very important to be active all the time. Have a regular exercise regimen and do it in a daily basis. Prevention is easier than treatment.

5.Build your Back Team

This is your team compose of specialists working FOR you and your health. It is composed of physical therapists, physicians or acupuncturists. If you prefer to do yoga or massage, make sure these people are on your team, too. If someone on your team isn’t dedicated to your well being, fired them and replace them with someone who is.

6.Drugs Are Not the Answer

I wish that medication was the answer but unfortunately, it is not. Don’t rely ‘on a silver bullet’ with medication to get the relief that you want. Find a long term solution without the side effects.

7.Have Disability Insurance in Place

When building your business and protecting your personal life, people will purchase health insurance, life insurance or business insurance but we are missing an important one which is the disability insurance. Often, it’s not thought about it until we need it. But it is important to be prepared all the time.

“Plan for the worst and live for the BEST!”

I’m speaking from the heart because this was all my experience and I don’t want you to go through what I’ve been through. So protect your back, NOW!